Teens Need More Sleep Than the 7 Hours or Less Most Are Getting

Teens need more sleep, say medical experts who've found most 15 to 19-year-olds get less than 7 hours a night.

On Monday, the journal Pediatrics published a study that surveyed nearly 300,000 teens from 1991-2012, and showed that the sleep deprivation problem has gotten worse over the last two decades.

15-year-olds experienced the largest drop in sleep over the observed time period. In 1991, over half of those surveyed said they got more than 7 hours of sleep a night. By 2012, less than 43 percent of respondents could say as much.

In general, younger teens fared better than older teens when it came to catching z's.

As CBS News reported, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) updated its recommendation for how much sleep teens should get just this month. Previously, it recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours a night. Now, it recommends 8 to 10 hours a night for kids 14 to 17 years of age.

"One of the highest risk groups for not getting enough sleep are teens," CBS News medical contributor Dr. Holly Phillips said of the new recommendations.

"Their national biological clocks keeps them up later at night and then if you add computer screen time which is very stimulating and all their homework and other things, they're up too late and school starts too early and they're working with a sleep deficit which ultimately affects their ability to learn."

Many school districts have looked into pushing back their daily start times, however most have found it would cost them millions of dollars to do so. Many schools recommend that students alternate semesters with early first classes and later-period first classes.